Storytelling for Leaders: How to Inspire Your Team

Lesson 4 of 9

Emotion & Strategy

Storytelling for Leaders: How to Inspire Your Team

Lesson 4 of 9

Emotion & Strategy

Lesson Info

Emotion & Strategy

We're gonna talk about emotion and strategy now. Those are the two parts of the Yin Yang that we wanna bring together when we think about our mindset or approach. Just a reminder, we're emotionally driven. Our rational brain is the newest part. Our reptilian brain is the oldest part. Right in the middle is our limbic system. It's non linguistic, it tells us how to feel and how to act. We make decisions based on emotions. So we need to plug into the emotional center. That's how we decide. The rational brain can think both sides of something usually. When we're just doing logic, we're only tapping into the rational brain. Which is not the most compelling for getting people to act. They might understand what you're saying, they might even agree with you, but will they take action? That's more limbic. We gotta tap into people being emotionally driven. It's the feeling that inspires action. However, if our strategy is off, all the emotion in the world won't do us any good. My example, why i...

s there a cat with skulls here? Well it's a little dark but everyone here has probably seen or heard about the Sarah Mc Lachlan ads for the SPCA. Where she's singing ♪ In the arms of an angel ♪ and there's all these cats and dogs that need to be rescued. Not put down. It will make you cry. It has made me cry multiple times. It's so effective. It's so effective it became a meme. People talk about it. Imagine if at the end of that whole experience instead of asking you to donate, which is a very reasonable request, she asks you to personally adopt 20 cats and 20 dogs. You'd be like, Sarah thanks for the tears. I really appreciate you connecting me to my heart and my tenderness. I'm out. There'd be like one person like, I am so in. I'll take 20 cats and 20 dogs. Most people are not gonna be compelled to action based on that strategy. So she would have nailed the emotion and missed the strategy. For most of you it's gonna be the reverse. You may have a good strategy but you're not nailing the emotion. So that's what I'm asking you to care for today. We will give you time to put a little strategy in place. We don't need a lot, just a little bit, What's the point of this? What are we trying to get done? Then I want you to supercharge the emotions. We're gonna help you start with your call to action. What do you want them to do? The action is the important piece here. What do you want them to do? Otherwise all of the storytelling wasn't really worth anything cause nothing changed. We tell stories to have impact. Impact comes in the form of action. Small and big. Action can be, thinking different is an action. You're having different signals sent in your brain if you're asking someone to think different. Doesn't mean someone has to go out and build a home for someone. Although that's great too. Connect the emotion to the cause. What's your cause? And then find the emotions that really resonate with that one. Drive the emotions into that cause. Some topics are gonna have bigger, stronger emotions that are appropriate than others. Sarah Mc Lachlan with cats and dogs that are gonna be put down. That's big emotion. If you're trying to get your team to do something at work. Maybe the story you're gonna tell, or the emotion you're gonna put, it's not appropriate to try to go to a 10. On the emotional scale. Maybe a five will do, four will do. But it's better than a one or a zero. So dial it in. There's not one way to do that. This was great that Sam and Mandy gave us an example of this. Inspiration or desperation is how you can motivate people to action. Mandy's was inspiration. Colonel Sanders, he was 60. He had no money. Now he's a rich guy with all the chicken. They gotta movie with like three people playing him in movies. At some point. So that's inspiration. You can be Colonel Sanders. You can be a chicken King too. (laughs) Or desperation, Sam's was like hey if I don't do this how will I feel? Oh my goodness I am so glad I was desperate. I gotta go back there. I gotta overcome my fears and talk to this woman. Right? So there's like two sides, two stories there. Any questions about emotion and strategy?

Class Description

You communicate with your team members every day, but have you ever stopped to consider how effective those conversations are? Are you really getting your message across in a clear and confident way? Are you explaining to your team why their jobs are critical to the success of the company?

If you feel like there’s something missing from your communication style, it could be the way you’re telling your story. Storytelling is an ancient art, used since the dawn of man to communicate, connect, and inspire. While it might come naturally to some, most of us need to learn and practice storytelling skills in order to achieve the most impact.

In this class, you’ll learn how to:

Design a simple story model to use in crafting your message.

Write a first draft of your story.

Know where to start in using storytelling in the workplace.

Engage your audience and elicit a positive reaction.

Tell stories that are simple, clear and concise, without being overly detailed or confusing.

Sang Hyo Lee

The live audience group is too small. Always the same people are giving input to Cory. Would be better if the group size is twice the size. He's constantly asking his group who wants to share. This makes it awkward for everyone in the live lesson.